Conservation

September 2013: Published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Mechanism (GM) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Offering Sustainable Land-use Options (OSLO) Consortium, the technical study, titled 'Valuing the biodiversity of dry and sub-humid lands,' provides policy-relevant information on valuation methods in the drylands context and guidance for their use.

9 September 2013: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions - Working Group on Environmental Auditing (INTOSAI-WGEA). The MOU aims to track progress in implementing multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) covering climate change, biodiversity and hazardous waste.

5 September 2013: In the September issue of its newsletter, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) describes the launch of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Research Program on Dryland Systems in South Asia.

4 September 2013: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released a report, titled 'Transnational Organized Crime in Eastern Africa: A Threat Assessment,' which highlights the scale of ivory poaching and its threat to elephant populations in the region, among other issues.

September 2013: The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI) has released an online GIS database of maps on environmental and economic change in the coastal and marine zones of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

Co-organized by Bioversity International, Ghana's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and other organizations, the 'Third International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species: For a Food-Secure Africa' will promote knowledge sharing and debate under three themes: improving the resilience of agricultural and livelihood systems; upgrading value chains of neglected and underutilized species; and creating an enabling environment.

3 September 2013: The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) has circulated a survey to help identify lessons learned about the ways and means to conserve and use genetic diversity to build resilience to climate change in food and agriculture systems.

28 June 2013: The World Customs Organization (WCO) released its annual Illicit Trade Report, which for the first time presents information across five thematic areas in one publication and recognizes the linkages among illicit trade in different commodities. Among its six chapters, the Report features an Environment Section that reviews compliance with the main multi-lateral environment agreements (MEAs) with international trade-related provisions.

August 2013: Participating in a meeting of the Agricultural Council of Central America (CAC), six Ministers and two Vice-Ministers of Agriculture noted the importance of the Strategic Action Plan for Mesoamerica, developed in the framework of the Benefit-sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR), and declared their intention to incorporate it into their national agendas.

August 2013: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) Regional Office for Africa has issued a newsletter highlighting articles and reports on promoting good governance in natural resource management in the region.

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